1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface for a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for providing a touch screen-based user interface and a portable terminal adapted to the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as portable terminals have increasingly been equipped with a touch screen, the importance of the touch screen-based user interface has increased. Technology related to the touch screen-based user interface has been developed to enhance a user's experience. A multiple touch method (also referred to as a multi-touch method) using the changes in the distance between two or more contacts has been widely used. However, the multi-touch method can only be applied to a capacitive type of touch sensor and requires at least two fingers to touch the touch screen. Therefore, the user has difficulty operating the portable terminal using only one hand.
A single touch method can be applied to the capacitive type of touch sensors and touch sensors of other types, for example, a resistive type of touch sensor. The single touch method may allow a user to easily operate the portable terminal using the user's hand. However, the single touch method is disadvantageous in that more touch inputs are needed than with the multiple touch method.
Therefore, a new user interface is desired that can reduce the number of input touches despite the single touch method being, used, and thus enhance the portable terminal user's experience.